St. Joseph Resident Questions Caution Tape Placement Amid Ongoing River Bridge Lawsuit

A St Joseph resident who is party to a lawsuit challenging the construction of a wall at the Joe’s River Bridge is questioning why the developer has erected caution tape along the gully when an injunction was still in place.

Victor Lewis, of Joe’s River, who is among the residents and visitors who hike in the area, said he was shocked to see the caution tape there last Sunday. He said that it prevented people from entering the gully – the very situation which they feared and which prompted them to file the court action two years ago.

He told the Weekend Nation about being confronted by the landowner, Australian Richard Hains, who has built a multi-million dollar villa and beach house. He said Hains informed him that he was trespassing and that he could not even drive his vehicle up to the bridge, something which Lewis said had been done by the public for many years.

“I come here and I see the caution tape and as I was lifting it to duck under I heard this voice behind me say, ‘Don’t move them’. I looked up and I saw a man. He said, ‘No, you can’t go through here’ and that he put the tape there as a matter of caution.

“I said, ‘No, you can’t be putting them there as a matter of caution, because the area here leads to the Joe’s River gully and these steps should not be across here to block my passage to the Joe’s River gully.”

“He said, I should not be driving my vehicle down in there. So, I told him, ‘Buddy, you can’t stop me from driving my vehicle in the gully. This is the train area and people have free access to here’.”

When contacted, a spokesman for Hains said: “The plastic caution tape is simply a precaution to protect the local community and tourists from potentially hurting themselves on the partially-built garden wall, which is subject to the court injunction. The owners of the site are simply cautious of such dangers, given the landscape. Full access to the ‘Cup and Saucer’ remains unimpeded on the eastern Atlantic side, as has been the case over recent years.

“This issue of the garden wall is subject to an ongoing legal case currently in the courts. The owners of the lower Tenby Garden remain committed to settling this issue to ensure the public maintain such access.”

Concerning the confrontation with Lewis, which was videotaped, the spokesman explained: “Lewis was watched maliciously trying to rip the tape apart in an act of vandalism. He did not realise that he was being watched from above.”

Regarding vehicles’ access to the area, he reported the owner as saying: “I do not want to be involved in a